Where the Personal and the Political meet, get drunk and have unprotected sex. (And never, EVER use Oxford commas!)

Monday, January 12, 2015

The Hypocrisy of an American Leftist

When I became a Leftist in 2004, it was by way of a rude
awakening. Noam Chomsky’s lectures and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States pulled me through the
looking glass. I realized our way of life is not primarily the fruit of our own
labor, but rather is built on the backs of the poor, in the U.S. and
across the globe, especially in the Third World.

I felt as though my parents, teachers and all adults had
sold me a bill of goods about Truth, Justice and the American Way. My world
changed overnight from one ruled by fair laws to one in which might makes
right. Capitalism was transformed from an essentially peaceful outgrowth of
human nature to a tyrannical system imposed and enforced through state-sponsored
violence.

All my material comforts were now tainted by sin. In a
desperate bid for moral purity, I purged myself of “unclean” possessions, those
that had been manufactured through the virtual enslavement of the workers
and/or degradation of the environment. I put all my sports apparel, much of
which was Nike-branded, in a garbage bag and donated it for my roommate’s
fundraiser. Thereafter, I sought out clothes, food and other products that
claimed to have been grown organically or manufactured under humane conditions or
made in an environment-friendly manner.

For those of you who have embarked on this kind of quixotic
quest, I probably don’t need to tell you what happened. Trying to change the
world is exhausting when every effort that falls short of perfection feels like
a failure. I was also lonely in my pit of guilt. I was surrounded by people
going along with the status quo. Why did they seem OK with it? I felt like
everyone around me was fallen and I alone had been saved from the ignorance
that blinded them.

Eventually, I gave up my crusade. It seemed hopeless and had
no appreciable effect on the global (or national or local) economy. The
Machinery of Death kept chugging along the same as before, as if nothing had
changed. To my extreme chagrin, the world was not transfigured to match my new perception.
Despite my pleading, America did not change its imperial ways.Unconsciously, I was probably hoping that the
Empire would reform itself so I wouldn’t have to abandon my lifestyle and my
faith in the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.

When the shock of my revelation finally wore off, it was
easy to understand why so many of us go along with a system we find
increasingly inhuman, onerous and even evil. All I had to do was ask myself,
“Why do I go along with it?” The answer was obvious and awful, always lying
just below the surface of my thoughts: Because it’s easy and comfortable, and
the alternatives seem lonely, hard and pointless.

So I’ve soldiered on as a member of the mainstream, unwilling
to foresake my comforts and mostly resigned to my complicity in the Great
American Crime of Empire. I still try to buy organic food and second-hand clothes
so my money doesn’t abet sweatshops. But I’ve indulged in conventionally-grown
food, sweatshop-made clothes and many other imperial luxuries in the
intervening years. That’s not to say that striving for ethical perfection is
pointless, only that stumbling along that path is inevitable, and I’ve found it
counterproductive to beat myself up over my failings.

Much as we Leftists like to condemn the evils of the
American Empire, we’re often loath to renounce the luxuries that it bestows on
us. We’ve been enjoying those luxuries for decades, if not centuries. We no
longer even think of them as luxuries, but essentials. However, if we want to repay
our debt to Nature and the rest of the human race, we need to ask ourselves
what is truly essential to life and what can be done without. As Mahatma Gandhi
said, “Live simply so that others may simply live.”

3 comments:

I consider myself more Libertarian than Left, but I've gone out of my way lately to "Buy American". This winter, I bought RedWing work boots, and had my prior (Chinese-made) work-boots re-soled by a local cobbler ($80). Last year, I replaced my black "dress" shoes with RedWing black oxfords. Before that, I bought a sturdy winter coat in July, because I found a Carhartt made-in-USA.

I wouldn't call Libertarian "far right". That's an argument used by the ruling class to distract alternative thinkers. Libertarians draw two axes: economic freedom, and social freedom. Democrats tend to prefer economic control in the service of social freedom (from hunger, for example). Republicans tend to prefer social control (drug laws, for example) because the consequences of social freedom impair economic freedom (taxation for the social 'safety net'). Libertarians prefer to allow individuals freedom on both axes, at the expense of individually-suffered consequences. Totalitarians allow freedom on neither axis.

Any political philosophy can be oversimplified to absurdity, but these are the compass points with which we navigate the real world.